Incalescent
by autumnartemis
Summary: (Hit Girl/OC) Femslash. Professional ballet dancer Anne is making her way home from rehearsals, and is brutally attacked, Hit Girl saves her life just in time. Yet what the women don't know is how much their lives will change from that night on.
1. Anne -An Unexpected Encounter

_Quick message: Trigger Warning- there will be mentions of attempted rape (not explicitly). _

* * *

Rehearsals mid-January are the worst Anne thinks. Not the rehearsals themselves of course, but the travel home. It's dark and cold, and the only sound to be heard is the icy wind relentlessly attacking anyone who is unfortunate enough to walk around outside at this hour. Rehearsals had ran late again, by two hours nonetheless, and now Anne is stuck walking the streets at 11 p.m. to get home. Home sounds lovely right now, and a warm shower to thaw out her skin before curling into her nest of bed sheets. She had opted for the quick way home as soon as she felt a chill in the air, despite its potential dangers e.g. alleyways. But with superheroes patrolling the city the crime rate of random attacks and sexual assaults had lowered, so she thought that she'd take that risk. She makes her way to her final shortcut, albeit it is the longest alleyway in her route but it takes away about 15 minutes of walking time.

The wind cuts off upon entry, now all Anne can hear are her footsteps, breathing, and the wind that bellows outside the alley. She practically power walks through, jogging in this weather hurts her throat and lungs, but slows down as she reaches the end. She tends to look both ways when leaving an alley, but with the rush to get home she's entirely focused on the direction she intends turning to, and that's when arms wrap around her body and drag her back. She thinks she has just stumbled backwards at first, but the firm pressure around her body tells her otherwise.

She lets out a shrill, "Get the fuck off of me!", before her mouth is viciously covered. She sees that as an opening to struggle more, but fuck that guy is strong. Too strong for her. And that's when she begins frantically elbowing his ribs, kicking back into his shins, and stomping onto his feet. Nothing seems to deter this creature. He just holds onto her even harder, until she's gasping for breath, and he whispers, "Struggle again and I'll do more than just fuck you". Her whimper is smothered by his hand. She can't allow this, she'd rather die than this. So she bites him. His hand that is. She thinks, _If I'm going to die, I want to at least fight with everything I've got_. He screeches. She just bites down harder. Blood fills her mouth and she feels her gag reflex kicking in, yet she holds on. He suddenly lets her go, and she breaks into a staggering run. She can hear him pursuing her, shouting curses and threats. She spits out the blood as she runs, and she can feel herself hyperventilating; the adrenaline rush is drifting away from her body. She can't have him catch her, he will definitely kill her for what she did. She only stumbles for a second, some idiot decided to litter the street with a can or something, but that's enough time for him to catch up and grab her scarf.

He roughly spins her around and punches her in the stomach making her keel over in pain. She goes to look back up and a warm liquid suddenly sprays onto her face, blurring her vision. The man has let go of her. She hears his body fall to the floor so she wipes her eyes to see what has happened, and in place of the man stands a woman, clad in her purple superhero outfit wielding a bloody knife. Anne's stomach throbs and aches, so she places her hands gently on there intending to rub and soothe the muscles. She takes deep breathes to calm herself, trying to seem somewhat composed before thanking the woman. She goes to speak, and realises her hands are wet and warm where they had been on her stomach. Slowly she looks down, and in place of her white hands are red stained ones. She feels her legs give out on her at the sight and realisation of what has happened, and the woman swiftly moves to grab her and lower her safely to the ground. The world is starting to blur and blacken before her.

She feels so tired. She wants to rest, just for a second and she does...until a growling voice brings her out of complete unconsciousness, "Hey, don't you dare go closing your eyes on me! Open them now and stay the fuck awake!" She refuses to open them, and then a sharp slap hits her on the face. It successfully makes her open her eyes and she sees the superheroin in place of the sky.

"I didn't want to do that, but you left me no choice," she smiles, "Now stay awake, I've called an ambulance, and they should be here soon. Hope you don't mind but I had to use your scarf to stem the blood flow. Pretty nasty stab wound you got going on there." Anne looks down and sees the woman's hand pressing onto her stomach. She places her hand on top of the woman's and whispers out a thank you.

"No problem Red, just doing my job really." They both hear the ambulance sirens from a distance. "I gotta go now, the ambulance is almost here and I kinda can't get caught. Maybe I'll see ya around."

Anne watches her leave, returning to the shadows from whence she came and the ambulance arrives moments after. She passes out again as soon as she's placed on the carrier, exhaustion finally taking over.


	2. Mindy -Just Doing Her Job

_**Quick message and responses to reviews:** I was wondering whether or not to have the perspectives shift between Anne and Mindy as the story goes on so we can see how they both feel/interpret things. I originally wasn't going to, 'cause writing in the perspective of a canon character can be rather daunting (especially if you're not sure how to make it sound like it's them), but I took the risk, and hopefully I've done Mindy justice in this chapter. (Also, I won't be posting every day, as soon as I start uni in September it'll most likely be cut down to once a week. But I'll try to get out as many chapters as I can before that time)_

_**To Makokam:** I agree that the lack of femslash in this fandom is rather saddening, it was basically the main incentive for me to write this in the first place, and to have Mindy end up being attracted to someone who she sees as the direct opposite of her at first was something I thought would be interesting. Glad to know my writing is at least somewhat decent, I was worried that my lack of experience would hinder it (I'm mostly used to writing essays not writing stories). Also to answer how old Mindy is in this, she's 20. (I wanted to write a more mature/experienced version of her but not too old, 20 is just right) Anne is 22 -this will all be mentioned in a future chapter anyways. Mindy is somewhat attracted to Anne, but in a 'wow she's pretty adorable like a kitten' way at first. (In this Mindy is someone who doesn't really care about gender, if she finds someone attractive she just goes along with it -her motto is basically 'why limit yourself to one gender, when all genders have attractive people that you can get on?') So she's pretty well experienced sexually with both men and women. -and thank you so much for your review! (also I absolutely adore your Dave/Mindy fanfics-and it was your Riley/Mindy oneshot that also convinced me even more that Mindy needs to be with more women in fanfics) _

_**To Rosalie0014:** Thank you so much! Hope you enjoy this chapter! (and I know what you mean about the lack of femslash, hopefully with Kick-Ass 2 coming out it'll make more writers do some femslash stories with Mindy). _

* * *

Mindy was starting to quickly regret going out on late night shifts. The weather's ridiculous, and even with her thick layers the wind somehow gets under her collar, making her shiver every now and then. She should have listened to Dave when he said it was too cold out to do a shift that night. She ignored him, called him a, "Pussy", and left. Perhaps she should start listening to Dave more...Mindy quickly brushes that idea aside and focuses back on the streets below. Another hour passes by and she finds herself lost in thought again, ever since they, Dave and Justice Forever, broke her out of prison those two years ago, Dave had been trying to deter her from going out on patrols, stating it was too risky. She explained that she was making up for lost time and that if Dave were forced to give up being Kick-Ass for three years, he'd jump at the chance to get the suit back on the moment he could, regardless of the consequences. That silenced him, yet even now he continues to warn her to be careful each time she leaves for her shift.

A sudden gust of wind knocks her out of her thoughts, and she wraps her cape even tighter around her body. Finally having enough of the weather, she decides to leave it for the night, until she hears a faint scream; most of it is drowned out by the wind. "Finally!" she says in excitement. It's a fair distance away, so she jumps from roof to roof as quick as she can.

She pauses, trying to hear for any sounds to check if she's closer to the attacker, and then she hears a man murmur something. Mindy's not sure if it's the right guy until a whimper follows the murmuring. She looks down and can see a slim redheaded girl being restrained by some huge guy just by the alleyway entrance. She's about to jump down to take control of the situation, when the redhead unexpectedly bites the man's hand. Mindy has to hold back a laugh at the screech the man lets out, so instead lightly snorts. Miss Red has guts, she'll give her that.

The guy lets go and Red manages to get away. But of course, the guy is angry, so he chases her; not without spewing curses and threats that make Mindy all the more determined to gut the guy. She quickly follows the man. He doesn't hear her, he's too busy shouting at Red, so she doesn't worry about trying to be light on her feet to remain unheard.

She looks ahead of the man to see how Red is fairing, and that's when the girl stumbles on something. The guy reaches her almost instantaneously, grabbing her purple scarf and spinning her around. Mindy notices a glint of something shiny in the man's hand, a knife, just before he thrusts it into the girl's stomach.

Mindy reaches the pair just in time and before he can do it again, she has her knife out and his throat slit. She grimaces as she realises the blood has sprayed all over Red's face and into her eyes. They're both breathing deeply, the girl appears to be winded and doesn't seem to realise she's been stabbed yet. Mindy hasn't had a chase like that in a while. She really needs to get back into the routine of running everyday.

The girl is taller than her she realises, by about 2 to 3 inches, not that that's uncommon, most people are taller than her. Red is currently wiping the blood in her eyes away with her coat sleeve. Finally she looks up, her eyes widen in shock, but she appears much calmer than Mindy expected her to be._ Must be the_ _adrenaline_, Mindy surmises,_ that's why she hasn't noticed yet_. The girl is about to say something when the hands that are on her stomach grab her attention. Mindy analyses her, waiting for a reaction, and then looks at Red's hands which are drenched in blood.

She makes her way over to the girl who appears to be on the verge of fainting and just as she's about to fall, Mindy grabs her and lowers her onto the ground carefully.

Red seems to be out cold. Mindy takes a quick look at the wound, it's not the worst she's seen, but it could definitely be fatal considering the blood loss. She pulls off Red's scarf to place on top of the wound, then applies pressure to stem the bleeding. She deftly pulls her disposable cellphone, that she only uses when she's out on a shift, out of her tool belt and calls for an ambulance. She knows the routine by now, this doesn't stop the dispatcher from asking a variety of questions, so she quickly states their location and describes the situation, how the attacker is incapacitated and that the victim is bleeding profusely and that yes, she is applying pressure to the wound. The dispatcher is satisfied with her answers and tells her an ambulance will be there as soon as possible. Mindy hangs up and places the phone back.

She doesn't have much time so Mindy quickly begins searching for a form of ID on the woman, thankfully she has an old gym membership card in her coat pocket, and reads the name, Anne Levina. At least now she has a name for the face (and to give at the hospital).

In the last few months Mindy had got into this habit of checking the injured victims she'd saved at the hospitals. She knows there's a risk of being caught, but one time, a few months back, she saved a different girl from a similar attack like this one. Mindy didn't notice the knife wound, and the woman seemed just fine. It wasn't until she read the newspaper the next day that she found out the woman, who she thought she had saved, had died later that night in hospital.

She places the card back and works on trying to awake the woman by shouting at her; Mindy is pretty sure Anne is awake as she appears to scowling with her eyes closed. Annoyed that Anne is ignoring her, Mindy gives her a harsh slap. That definitely wakes her up.

"I didn't want to do that, but you left me no choice," she smiles condescendingly, "Now stay awake, I've called an ambulance, and they should be here soon. Hope you don't mind but I had to use your scarf to stem the blood flow. Pretty nasty stab wound you got going on there."

Anne stares at her as she talks, then glances down at the mention of the scarf being used to stop the bleeding. She has pretty light blue eyes Mindy realises. She supposes that's just part of the package of being a redhead. Their eyes are often blue or green. Mindy is slightly lost in thought and it's the gentle touch on the hand that's on Anne's stomach that brings her back to reality. It's Anne. She's placed her hand on top of Mindy's and whispers a thank you. She's oddly touched by the sincerity in her voice.

Mindy replies with a simple, "No problem Red, just doing my job really."

They both hear the ambulance sirens from a distance and Mindy takes it as her cue to leave, "I gotta go now, the ambulance is almost here and I kinda can't get caught. Maybe I'll see ya around."

She runs and climbs up a fire escape, hiding away from view, and waits to make sure that the woman is taken by the ambulance. Once they have her loaded, Mindy makes her way back home. It's not until she's rewarding herself with a cup of hot chocolate that she realises she let slip of her little nickname for the woman.


	3. Anne -Finally Awake

_**Quick Message:** Nothing too interesting in this chapter, but I'm building up to it! Next chapter we'll see what Mindy has been up to in the last few days whilst Anne has been in hospital. _

* * *

Anne awakes to a beeping sound, a heart rate monitor she thinks. She refuses to open her eyes just yet. She can practically feel the sleepdust smothering them. She wonders just how long it's been since that night. From the aches of her muscles, she assumes it has been a few days, perhaps even a week. She hears the door to the room open, and chooses that moment to finally open her eyes.

It's a woman, a nurse Anne thinks at first, until she explains that she's her doctor, Dr. Florence.

"You've had quite an injury, but luckily enough the knife missed your vital organs, so you should be just fine. However, just as a precaution we've put you on a course of antibiotics in case of infection."

Anne sighs in relief, perhaps she'll be out of here sooner than she thought, maybe even in time to perform.

"How long until I can dance again? ...I'm a professional ballet dancer...I can't just leave..." She had one of the lead roles for goodness sake! Her first time landing such a role and this had to happen to her.

The doctor appears sorrowful at her predicament, and softly explains that it'll take a few weeks until she recovers from the damage, and that because of the muscle damage she should expect some pain even after she's healed.

She'd cry if only the slightest movement didn't create a searing pain in her abdomen. Instead she clenches her hands, anger pulsing through her as she thinks of the, thankfully, dead man who is to blame for this. Her first lead role taken away from her. It'll be months before she gets back to her decent dance standard.

Anne reminisces over the most recent costume fitting she had, it was just a few days before the attack. The bodice and tutu were light pink with patterns of gold crystals that twinkled wonderfully at every movement. She had to test out a few poses and stretches to make sure it was comfortable enough to bend in when she danced. When she stopped to analyse herself in the mirror further, the costume designer placed a small crown upon her head to complete the look. 'The Sleeping Beauty' is a favourite of hers, and to play Aurora had her giddy with excitement. She truly felt like all the hard work, pain and dedication over the years were finally amounting to something.

Dr. Florence interrupts her train of thought announcing that the police have been notified that she is awake, and will be shortly arriving to ask questions about that night. Anne asks if she can eat or drink something first, her throat is slightly sore and dry, and her stomach has been rumbling the moment she woke up; turns out she's been there for almost 3 days; it's late in the evening of her third day. Florence gladly gets someone to bring her some water and two slices of buttered toast. She munches them down quickly, barely being able to savour the taste. Sure it's only been 3 days, but 3 days without being able to eat or taste food is unbearable, hell, more like unthinkable, for her. She feels a little more awake after eating and rubs away the sleepdust that weighs down her eyelids.

Whilst waiting for the police to arrive, she looks at the flowers, cards and stuffed toys that are placed around the room. The yellow tulips are obviously from her parents, it had been their tradition to buy her those flowers after her performances, and the rest of the gifts she assumes are from various other family members and her friends from ballet. She notices a vase of purple roses among the pile of gifts; a similar shade, if not the same, as the wig and costume of the superhero who saved her that night. Anne doesn't keep up with the superhero news therefore the name for this crusader doesn't enter her mind. The only superhero she recalls that wore purple was Hit Girl, but that was years ago, and she remembers hearing of how she was arrested and should currently be detained in prison. She will have to do research on the web when she gets home; hopefully the superhero has a website so she can at least thank her again and let her know she's okay.

A knock at the door breaks her out of her thoughts and she calls to allow whoever's knocked in. It's the police. They ask a barrage of questions, as though Anne is to blame for the whole incident; "What happened? Why were you out so late? Do you recall who else was there? How did your attacker acquire an injury to the throat? Do you know the name for the superhero you saw?"

She answers as best as she can but the most she can do is describe the attack, how it wasn't her that killed him, and the superhero who helped her. As Anne describes her, she notices the increasing worry in the policemen's eyes. They refuse to answer when Anne asks what's wrong with them. They just shake their heads, state they have everything they need for now, and quickly leave.

Anne tries to quell the unsettling feeling in her stomach at the thought of the police not being truthful in their answers. She hopes it's nothing too serious, but she knows that if the police are worried, then perhaps she should be too.


	4. Mindy -Three Days

_**Quick Message:** Well this took a lot longer to write than I was expecting. Hope you guys like it! Feel free to review and criticise and such..._

* * *

After Mindy sipped down the last of her hot chocolate, she brushed her teeth, stripped and headed straight to bed drained. Just as she was about to doze off, she realised that she needed to set her alarm for 7 a.m. to begin her daily run.

As soon as it goes off that morning she regrets it. Mindy groans, turns over, and smothers her face with a pillow. Why did she set her alarm so early again? Oh right, the running thing. Last night made her realise she'd been slacking and now she needed to get back into decent shape. Especially if a similar incident was to occur again whilst she was on patrol. Turning off the alarm as she makes her way to the bathroom, she decides to not bother with a shower yet, as she's only going to get sweaty anyway. Instead she brushes her teeth, sprays on some deodorant, and washes her face. Feeling somewhat more clean, she throws on one of her sports bras, a loose shirt, panties, shorts and socks. Mindy heads downstairs ready to eat her breakfast. Dave is already up and awake, sitting at the table, drinking coffee, whilst reading the newspaper.

She greets him with a, "Hey", as she makes her way towards their cereal selection.

"Hey, how did your patrol go last night?"

She opts for some Lucky Charms, grabs a bowl from the cupboard and fills it 'til it's full, all whilst informing Dave of last night's activities,

"Pretty boring for a while, 'til I heard this redheaded girl being attacked by a huge bulk of a guy"

She heads to the fridge to retrieve a carton of milk.

"Fuck, is she okay?"

She grabs the carton and makes her way back to her bowl of cereal, and replies,

"I think so, I'm gonna check which hospital she's in later, maybe send some flowers"

She pours the milk into the bowl, quickly places the carton back in the fridge and grabs a spoon from the drawer.

"Flowers?" Dave asks incredulously, " You only send flowers if someone's made an impression on you."

Mindy sits opposite him, spoon at the ready to dive into her Lucky Charms, and quickly explains,

"She had a pretty bad stab wound. She deserves some flowers, especially after she bit the guy to get away," She chuckles at the memory of it, "The sound he made was so fucking funny!"

"She bit him?"

Mindy answers with her mouth full, "Yeah, Red's a badass", Dave grimaces at the graphic display of cereal being turned to mush.

"Red, huh? Is that the nickname you've given her?" He's grinning as though he knows something she doesn't.

Oh fuck, she really needs to think before she speaks. Mindy hopes Dave doesn't read too much into it. It's only a small nickname referring to her hair colour. What's the big deal really?

Slowly she says,"...Yeah"

"Oh no.." Dave groans.

"What?"

A look of knowing spreads across Dave's face as he smirks at her and states, "You think she's cute."

"I...don't...it was kinda hard to tell really." Mindy focuses on her cereal, stirring it as a distraction to avoid Dave's eyes.

"So? "

Dave seems to have decided to be difficult today so she snaps at him, "Okay fine! She's cute, but that doesn't mean anything. I mean you're kinda cute, but I don't wanna fuck you...well not anymore."

Dave ignores her comment, "Aw Mindy, it's been so long since I've heard you call a girl cute."

"Yeah, don't get used to it" She stuffs another spoonful of her cereal in her mouth... She can't help it that she finds Anne cute. She bets anyone who meets the redhead finds her attractive on some level. Who wouldn't, with those pale blue eyes, red hair and heart shaped face? _Man, I need to get laid_, Mindy thinks.

"So what happened to the guy?"

Mindy hesitates and slowly chews her food trying to think of what to say. She knows Dave is gonna freak when he finds out she killed the guy. But honestly, what else was she supposed to do? Let the guy walk free so he can rape and kill women again? Hell no. Killing that guy was a community service, if anything.

"Mindy?" Dave's tone has an edge of suspicion to it.

She decides to be blunt rather than put it off, he's only gonna find out someway, he always does, "I slit his throat."

"Mindy!" Dave hisses.

"He stabbed her! What were you expecting? That I'd just let that go?" Mindy can't understand Dave sometimes. That sicko deserved what he got, and much more. If she had more time she would've gutted him really slowly.

"The police will be onto you now!" Dave groans, "I really can't deal with moving again"

Mindy rolls her eyes at how overdramatic Dave's being, "Dude, chill, she looked way out of it when she saw me, don't think she even knew who I was..."

"Doesn't mean they won't know it was you. I mean come on, a girl is about to be murdered and suddenly her attacker is dead. That has you written all over!"

Mindy gets up from her seat and sighs, "Okay Dave, I get it, lay low for a while. I need to train more anyways, my stamina has kinda plummeted. I blame those video games you got me addicted to," she throws her bowl into the sink, "Now I have to go for a run, wanna join?"

"Nah, I'll leave it for today"

"You sure? You've got a bit of a pouch going on there" She points to his stomach.

"What? No I don't!" Dave frantically pulls his shirt up, revealing his abs. He pokes and prods himself in search for the so called 'pouch'.

Mindy snorts, "Just fucking with you. Man, you've got vain."

Dave rolls his eyes and retorts, "_Please_, if there was a photo entry for 'Pride' in the dictionary, it'd be of you."

Ignoring that comment, Mindy makes her way to the front door to retrieve her sneakers.

"Whatever Dave, I'm going now" She puts her sneakers on and exits the house.

* * *

Mindy decides to start of with a slow jog just to warm up her muscles, then gradually works her way up to a run. She runs around the block several times; she's pacing herself much better than she did last night. After an hour she can feel the slight aches in her muscles and her breath quickening. Once she reaches home again she spends the rest of the morning stretching, doing sit ups and press ups. It's midday when she's finally content with how much exercise she's done. The hot shower is absolute bliss and she spends over an hour in there.

Clean at last, Mindy begins to call around the hospitals to find out where Anne is being cared for. She puts on the guise of a concerned family member; a close cousin. Finally, after the 5th call, she finds out Anne's been taken to Lenox Hill Hospital. She tries to press for a room number but the receptionist refuses to give out any more information, much to Mindy's annoyance. She just thanks her and hangs up. At least she knows where Anne is now.

With that business sorted, she spends the rest of the afternoon playing 'The Last Of Us'. Dave had got it for himself but the moment Mindy saw how badass the character Ellie was, she quickly took over the game. Dave keeps on trying to take it back, but all it takes is a glare from Mindy and he backs off, leaving her to play. She's almost completed it when Dave interrupts announcing dinner is ready. It's his turn to make dinner; they made up a rotor for the chores and cooking to avoid arguments when they began living together. She quickly pauses and saves the game and makes her way to the kitchen.

Dinner is pretty uneventful. They both just discuss what they've been up to. The moment she mentions finding out the hospital Anne's in, Dave has that 'Mindy has a crush' smirk on his face. She's almost tempted to throw a pea in his eye to stop it but she holds back.

She spends the rest of the evening finishing the game, the closing scene has her seething and she shouts, "What? That's it? That's how they're leaving it?" She throws the controller across the room. Dave suddenly enters with one of his batons at the ready, "Are you okay? What's going on?"

"A shit ending to a game that's what's going on." Mindy groans throwing her body on her bed.

"For fuck's sake Mindy, I thought you were being attacked or something."

She mumbles, "Unfortunately not, I'd rather that than this."

"God stop being so overdramatic. Shouldn't you be asleep by now anyway? You have to go for a run tomorrow, right?"

"Don't remind me." She rolls over to face him.

"Well I am, now goodnight." He closes her door.

" 'Night," she replies.

* * *

Mindy makes herself run a bit further the next morning. Whilst she won't be going on a patrol for a while she needs to make sure she's in top condition; anything could happen.

She spends the majority of her day at florists; wearing a brunette wig as a precaution lest someone somehow recognises her. None of the flowers seem just right. Mindy know she's being a tad awkward but she wants the flowers to imply they're from her. Well, from Hit Girl.

She's at the 7th florist, she thinks, it's kinda hard to keep track with the constant presence of flowers, after the 3rd florist it all became a blur. So now she's at what she hopes will be her final stop. Glancing around at the displays, a vase of purple roses catches her attention. _Finally_, Mindy thinks, _they're perfect._ She exhales in relief, and quickly buys them. They are kinda expensive but she can't stand the thought of going to another florist, so she relents. The vase also comes with them, which is glass so she has the florist wrap it up in some newspaper otherwise she'll worry about it breaking when she swerves round corners. Getting them into the back compartment of her black motorcycle, (she wanted a purple one, but Dave told her that that'd be way to obvious and she'd be caught by the police in minutes, so she had to get a dull black one), is a bit tricky but she manages. Placing her helmet back on she makes her way to Lenox Hill Hospital to drop off the flowers for Anne.

When she gets there she has to put on the act of being Anne's cousin again. The receptionist tells her only close family members can see her, yet Mindy is determined. She starts crying and pleading and she can see the receptionist wearing down the more emotional she gets. Soon the receptionist caves and tells her the room number she's in. Luckily it's the ground floor, that means Mindy can come back for a secret visit if she wants. She smirks as she leaves the receptionist, _Man, I should really have been an actress._ Slowly she approaches the door to Anne's room and checks to see if she's unconscious. She is, so Mindy makes her way into the room. She keeps an eye on Anne as she fills the vase with water and places the roses in it, setting it amongst the other gifts.

With that sorted she approaches Anne to get a clearer look at her. She's much more prettier in the sunlight. It reflects off her red hair illuminating its gold tones and lights up her pale face slightly. She still looks exhausted though. She has bags under her eyes and slightly oily skin from lack of cleaning. She notices a strand of Anne's hair is over her eye so Mindy reaches over to tuck it behind her ear. Her hair is much softer than she was expecting. She abruptly retracts her hand, _Fuck, I'm turning soft... _She walks over to the window to analyse the outside surroundings, and also unlocks it. Soon she leaves, not without turning back to Anne to give her one last look, and goes outside the hospital. She walks around it, trying to find Anne's window so she knows exactly where she needs to go if she decides to visit her again. With that over and done with she heads back home.

* * *

It's over dinner when she tells Dave she's gonna visit Anne again.

He just stares at her, analysing, before he replies, 'This girl has really got to you."

Mindy rolls her eyes, trying to appear nonchalant, "No, I just want to make sure she's really okay. She was still unconscious when I visited today."

"Right, right," Dave nods.

"Look Dave, you know my rule, never date or have sex with the victims we save," she states.

"I know, but...you have broken that rule before," He raises an eyebrow in judgement.

Mindy hastily replies, 'I couldn't help it! It was him who seduced me! ...And it's not like he knew who I was anyways so..." She plays with her food.

"You still had a rule", he grins.

Mindy holds her hands up in submission, "I know, I know! God will you ever let that go?"

"Nope."

"Dick."

* * *

Mindy leaves to visit Anne the next night. It's around midnight when she gets to the hospital. She's dressed as Hit Girl as she can't give away her real appearance to Anne. Scanning the area she makes her way over to the building. She soon finds Anne's window and pushes to see if it's still unlocked. Thankfully it is, and she slowly opens it and climbs into the room.


	5. Anne -Night Visit

_**Quick Message:** Well here it is, finally some interaction between Mindy and Anne! I practically re-read and edited this chapter 10 times a day for the last week. I can't wait for these guys to be close friends so their conversations run much smoother like Mindy and Dave's do. It was a challenge writing out people talking for the first time as you don't want them to be too over familiar with each other, but as they're each other's love interests, you have to keep a subtle closeness/attraction -hopefully I've done this right! Well I hope you guys enjoy this, and feel free to review! (Seriously if you don't like something, or whatever, I will look over it, and if I agree, I'll change it)_

* * *

It's the middle of the night when she awakes again, the moonlight gently washes over the room, illuminating it with a glow ever so slightly. It's rather beautiful and for once Anne feels completely at ease. She closes her eyes again, intending to fall back into slumber, but the noise of her window opening stuns her. She feels every muscle in her body tense. She tries to keep herself calm for fear of alerting the presence of the other that she is awake. Yet, she hears no noise for a few minutes. Believing the whole thing to have been her imagination, she opens her eyes to make sure, and there stands by the window, the superhero from the other night.

She feels her chest tighten with shock and squeaks out a ,"Hello".

The superhero smirks in amusement and replies with a, "Hi".

Anne realises she can't keep on referring to the superhero as just 'the superhero', so she asks what her name is, "Your superhero name of course...I mean obviously..."

She's flustering she realises; talking to strangers has never been her strong suit, let alone people who have saved her.

"Hit Girl"

That confuses Anne, considering there's been no news of Hit Girl being released from prison, "But I thought, you were in prison right...?"

"Yeah, but I got out, well broke out is the right term I suppose. Those fuckers didn't even see it coming. I couldn't have done it without Kick-Ass though."

Hit Girl wonders through the room, exploring the gifts and the various flowers spread out around her. She's right next to her bed now, but her back is turned towards Anne. Anne takes that moment to get a good look of her; Hit Girl's slim, practically the same build as her, although it's hard to tell for sure as her outfit hides everything. She's also quite short, which surprises Anne, Hit Girl looked so tall that night, but now standing before her, Anne realises that she has a very petite stature.

"Oh...right. Good for you ...and me I suppose. I would've been dead that night if it weren't for you."

Hit Girl shakes her head and turns around to face her, "I should've intervened sooner, I thought you had got away, gave a right good struggle too with him. Nice move biting his hand by the way. Sick fuck deserved it."

Anne contorts her face in disgust, "Urgh, don't remind me, I can still taste the blood in my mouth every now and then."

Hit Girl laughs lightly at this, trying to keep quiet Anne thinks, lest she alerts the hospital of her appearance.

"Thank you again by the way, I mean I know I said it before, on that night, but -"

"No problem, it's been a while since I killed scum like him, and I fucking needed it"

"What are you doing here, may I ask?" Anne doesn't believe her injury warrants her a visit from the saviour herself, especially considering how confident Hit Girl looked when she tended to her wound that night. There was no trace of worry in her, only amusement and a look of determination.

"Sometimes, I like to check on the people I've saved, just to make sure you know," she pauses, "Sometimes you can underestimate wounds..."

Hit Girl's voice slowly gets quieter until only the sound of the heart rate monitor echoes through the room. It's a nice silence, one of understanding from Anne's side, yet she detects traces of unwanted vulnerability in Hit Girl's. In order to break the awkward silence, Anne quickly changes the topic of conversation, "Was it you who got me those flowers?"; she had been wondering about who sent them to her ever since the police left. She had asked the nurse earlier if there was a note on them, but no, nothing there. No note or hint as to who they were from, other than the colour of them.

"Flowers?"

"The purple roses in that vase," she points towards them, "They're very beautiful."

Hit Girl glances towards them, a small smile gracing her lips, "Well they should be, I did pick them," she pauses and turns her face back towards Anne, "How did you know?"

"Only a guess, they reminded me of you...and thank you, I love them" Anne shyly smiles at her admittance.

Hit Girl stands there rather awkwardly, as though she has no idea how to respond, she mumbles out a, "That's good, um, I should go..."

Anne quickly whispers, "Wait, don't go! Please, sit down," Anne fiddles with her blanket and avoids looking at her, "I mean you haven't been here long and it'd be nice to have someone to talk to." She looks back up at her, her eyes pleading.

Hit Girl bites her lip in consideration; her legs straddling the window sill. Slowly she lifts her leg back into the room, turns around and sits down on the seat beside her bed. Anne can get a closer look at her now. Hit Girl has a lovely face shape, very slim with high cheekbones. Her eyes are difficult to make out though, both due to her mask shadowing them and the darkness.

Hit Girl's focus is on something across the room. It's as though she's avoiding eye contact with Anne. Anne blushes slightly as Hit Girl turns back to look at her, feeling as if she's been caught staring. She's very unrelenting in her looks; Anne can only think of how terrifying it would be to be on her bad side.

"So...are we gonna talk, or are we just gonna spend the night staring at each other?"

Anne laughs at that and replies, "Okay, okay, what can we talk about?" She mostly asks herself.

"Why the hell were you walking the streets so late that night?" The question catches Anne off guard. She was kind of hoping that they would talk about something more positive. Hit Girl doesn't look angry, despite the tone she asked her in, more inquisitive than anything.

"I'm a ballet dancer..."

Hit Girl snorts as she holds back her laughter. Anne gives her a dirty look, "And that's funny because...?"

She stops laughing, yet her grin remains, "Wait, wait, so you mean like, you wear all those frilly costumes and crap?"

Anne crosses her arms in anger, and glares at her, "Yes, I wear a lot of those 'frilly costumes and crap', and before you say how girly and prissy ballet is, I'd like to see you stand on your toes and recite a dance for 3 hours without hurting yourself." She smirks at Hit Girl. It's not the first time she's been ridiculed for being a ballet dancer. It's mostly due to ignorance; not a lot of people know how much pain they endure from endless rehearsals or how dangerous ballet can be if inexperienced.

Hit Girl retorts with, "How do you know I can't?"

"I can tell by your posture, how you stand, how you walk...apart from your physique, you are nothing like a ballet dancer."

Hit Girl, rather than looking angry, seems impressed with her analysis, "So, you're a ballet dancer...?" Making her continue on with the story.

"Yes, and I was on my way home from rehearsals. We'd ran overtime you see, by a couple of hours, and I thought I'd take shortcuts so I'd be home sooner."

"What were you rehearsing?"

"Why do you want to know? I thought ballet was funny to you?" Anne snaps.

"Look, I'm sorry I laughed okay? It's just, I've always thought ballet was so," She pauses, pursing her lips in concentration, "um, girly? But the way you described it, dancing for hours, your whole body weight on your toes, whilst staying balanced...it sounds pretty badass." She admits.

Anne smiles, "Yeah, it is badass...won't be able to do it for a while though," She sighs.

"Is that what the doctor said?"

"Yup..." She stares at the ceiling and rolls her head back to look at Hit Girl, "We were rehearsing 'The Sleeping Beauty', it's one of my favourites. I had one of the lead roles you know. Princess Aurora."

Anne is playing with the blanket again as a distraction. She can't believe she's spilling all this to a stranger. She glances back up at Hit Girl, and is surprised to see sympathy etched on her face.

Hit Girl breaks the silence, "She's the one who has to be kissed right? To be woken up from a spell or something?" She glances down at the bottom of Anne's face. Anne, thinking there's something there, wipes her mouth and chin with the back of her hand.

"Yeah that's the one! It's a very lovely story, I could get you a ticket for the show if you'd like? I mean I won't be performing obviously, but then you'd be able to see it for yourself."

"I'll think about it, I'd rather have seen you perform though."

Anne blushes at the subtle compliment, "In a few months perhaps..." They're both silent again.

"I'm scared you know," Anne whispers, "I don't know what I'll do when I have to walk home in the dark again."

Hit Girl looks down, suddenly interested in her gloved hands. Anne can feel her chest tightening as she holds back tears. Her breathing becoming more erratic as she tries to calm herself. Hit Girl leans over and grabs her hand, still avoiding eye contact, "You could always have self defence lessons?" she suggests.

Anne shakes her head, "No," she gulps, "I tried it for a while, I can't seem to learn that way, you'd think I could, as it's all technique kinda like ballet, but, actually being attacked...it's so different, so rushed, most of it is a blur..."

Hit Girl hums in agreement, her thumb rubs Anne's hand. Suddenly an idea hits Anne, she knows Hit Girl will most likely not agree to it, but it doesn't hurt trying.

"Would you...um...would you ever consider training me?" The grip on Anne's hand tightens, "Not to be a superhero or anything, just how to fight..." Her voice drifts off.

Hit Girl's face morphs into confusion, obviously that was the last thing she was expecting Anne to ask her.

"Please, I...when that man grabbed me, I felt so fucking weak. I never want to feel that way again. I can't feel that way again. I won't allow it." Anne can feel her eyes watering up again, and quickly dabs away the oncoming tears with her blanket.

Hit Girl sighs deeply and replies, "I'll think about it."

Anne smiles, that's all she could ask for really, and swaps their hands over so she's now holding Hit Girl's. "Thank you."

"I haven't said yes yet," Hit Girl states.

"I know, I know, but just you considering it at all is worth a thank you."

"I should probably go now, and you need to rest." She pulls her hand out of Anne's hold, stands and walks over to the window.

"When did _you _become my doctor?"

Hit Girl softly chuckles at her, "By the way, anyone asks, I was never here," She turns her head to give Anne a sharp look.

"Right, never here"

Hit Girl nods, and just as she leaves says, "See you around, Red."

She's gone, the window now closed and Anne feels her face break into a grin at the nickname. She wipes the last of her tears away and snuggles back into her pillow. With a smile still on her face, she drifts off into a deep sleep in no time.


	6. Mindy -The Decision

_**Quick Message: **Wow, this chapter took a long time to write. I do love some Dave/Mindy banter! And I'm so glad how popular the pairing has become after Kick-Ass 2! So this chapter is fueled with Dave/Mindy interaction, with a few conversations based around Anne. Writing Mindy in emotional distress is oddly fun..._

* * *

_**Fuck.**_ The word a mantra in her mind. It's all she could think as she went back to her safe house, to change out of her costume. It's all that constantly pounded through her brain as she drove home. And it's what she shouted as she entered her house and slammed the door.

She hears Dave groan from upstairs, "Mindy?", he stumbles downstairs still half asleep, baton in hand. He always overreacts when she screams in the house, thinking she's being attacked.

She runs her hand through her hair and begins pacing back and forth in the corridor, "I don't know what to do, Dave, I mean I can't train her, oh god, but she only wants to know how to protect herself. How can I say no to that? Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck..." She continues, until Dave grabs her shoulders and tells her to calm down.

"Okay, Mindy, start from the beginning and tell me what happened."

"Okay," She sighs, "Okay." Dave leads her into the living room and they sit down on the coach. Before she can get a word out he says, "How about I make you a hot chocolate? You look like you need it."

Mindy smiles at Dave's concern and replies, "That'd be awesome man, thanks."

"No problem," and heads to the kitchen. Mindy spends the time thinking over her conversation with Anne. She looked so upset...so vulnerable. Mindy hates seeing women cry. She knows how Anne feels; when Frank D'amico was waltzing around his office, whilst she was laying there, sobbing both over her oncoming death and how she thought she had failed her father, she felt so weak. _Never again, _she thinks, _Never_.

Dave re-enters with two cups in his hands and gently places them on the coffee table, "Thought I'd better make myself some coffee, I sense we're gonna be up a while," He leans back into the sofa to get comfortable, "Now, lay it on me."

"I visited Anne tonight."

He nods, "Yes, your girlfriend."

"Dave, this is not the time to joke!" She glares at him and her jaw clenches.

He holds his hand up in submission, "Okay, no jokes. Please continue."

She tells him every detail of their conversation, not mentioning how she bumbled like an idiot in reaction to Anne's admiration over the flowers of course (nor how Mindy would like to see Anne blush for different reasons). As soon as she brings up the part where Anne asked her to train her, she feels Dave sit up in interest. She glances over to him to see he's intently staring at her before he declares, "You should do it."

Mindy gives him a look of disbelief, "Are you fucking serious?"

"Yes."

"But-"

"Mindy, all she wants is to learn how to defend herself. I heard you say it yourself. I mean, where's the harm in that? She doesn't sound like the type to go out and find trouble or pick fights."

She bites her lip as she considers Dave's advice then nods, "You're right. I'd rather she knew how to defend herself than end up being killed 'cause I decided not to train her." She sips her drink and feels herself relax.

"You need a hug?" Dave asks, arms outstretched at the ready.

She puts her mug back down on the table, "Why the hell not?" she smiles, and shifts over toward him. His arms encase her entirely. She forgot how much bigger Dave is to her. She feels safe and loved in his arms. Her body loosens as she breathes in his familiar scent. It's home. Her family. She practically has to force herself to pull away, "Thanks man, I needed that." She holds her fist out and he bumps his own against it.

"Anytime Mind."

She yawns and stretches before announcing, "Well, my bed is calling me, 'night Dave."

He calls after her, "Goodnight, don't let the villains bite!"

Mindy snorts and rolls her eyes in amusement.

* * *

Dave joins her for her run the next morning. She runs ahead now and then and shouts at him, "Hurry your ass up!" He just groans in pain and replies, "God Mindy, are you trying to kill me?" She laughs as she runs even further away. Dave catches up soon enough, though he practically almost passes out as they re-enter their house. He throws his body onto the sofa, still trying to regain his breath. Mindy goes to the kitchen to get him some water, and as she hands him the glass, she teasingly says, "Wow Dave, and I thought I'd let myself go." He glares at her as he chugs down the water. Mindy crosses her arms and smiles, "Well I can see that you've had enough exercise for the day, now I'm gonna head to the safe house to train."

He sits up, at the ready to stand, "I'll join you."

"Dave, you almost coughed up your lungs on a simple run."

He stands and walks in the kitchen to place the glass on the counter, "I'm just gonna watch, plus we haven't hung out in a while, and I think you need someone to talk to about this whole Anne business."

She raises her voice as he's in the kitchen, "We talked enough last night, lets leave it for now."

"Mindy," He walks out of the kitchen, "I know there's more to what you're telling me."

"Fine, you can watch me train, just," she sighs, "Just no Anne talk today, okay?"

He nods, "Okay, no Anne talk."

"Now grab your helmet, and try not to scream at each turning." She turns around and makes her way to the front door.

Dave follows, "Maybe if you didn't turn so quickly, I wouldn't think I was about to die."

"Please Dave, if I was trying to kill you, it'd be in a much more creative way than just trying to throw you off my motorcycle." She grabs her helmet.

"Touché."

* * *

Mindy throws in a few swerves as they make their way over to the safe house, mainly 'cause hearing Dave squeak and scream is ridiculously entertaining to her. When they arrive Dave practically jumps off the motorcycle as though it's contaminated with something. Mindy snorts and takes her helmet off, she glances at Dave to see him glaring at her and he whines, "Mindy, you promised no swerving!"

She feigns innocence and replies, "Oh, woops, sorry, I didn't even realise."

He raises his eyebrows at her in disbelief, but doesn't reply.

Mindy punches in the code for the door, and they make their way in. Dave glances around, "Hey, I thought we were saving money." He points to their collection, which has noticeably doubled in size.

"I didn't spend any money. I went to another safe house that the police had found."

"Mindy!"

"Woah, hey, I just snuck in once when no one was on watch and grabbed as many guns and cartridges as I could carry. I sure as hell wasn't gonna let a weapon of mine be unable to live out it's purpose. All the police would do is keep it as evidence and it'd never see the light of day." She grabs one of the guns, stroking it like a well loved pet.

"I'm sorry, would you like me to leave you alone with your gun?"

"It's loaded you know."

"How did you even find out about it?"

She hesitates before she answers, "Sometimes I hack into the police files to see what's going on."

"Mindy!"

"Dave!" She imitates, "Stop freaking out, we're fine, it was months ago."

He doesn't reply to that, instead he changes the topic of conversation, "So, what kind of training you doing today?"

"I'm in the mood for some knife throwing, wanna play the target?" She smiles.

Dave walks to the chair in the room and sits down, whilst gesturing for her to get on with her training.

"Spoil sport," She sighs.

She sharpens her knives first, making sure they're in perfect condition. Dave breaks the silence, "You know what I don't get? It's been two years and they still haven't brought your escape up on the news."

She places the sharpened knife down and turns to him, "We've discussed this before Dave. They probably covered it up. You know what the media would've been like. The police would've become a laughing stock."

He nods in agreement, "Yeah I know, but, you'd think someone would've let slip by now, plus there's mentions on the web of your mysterious reappearances every now and then. Though, most think it's just a wannabe."

She snorts, "Please, no one could live up to my name, maybe if I have a kid, but...don't think that's ever gonna happen." She picks up a knife to sharpen.

"You don't want kids?"

"Honestly, never really thought about it 'til now...maybe one day, but not for a long time," she smiles, "What about you Dave?"

His eyes widen in shock at the suggestion, "God, kids...yeah I'm with you on that one. Not for a long time."

"If I'm not mistaken, didn't you once gush over how cute yours and Katie's babies would look?" She smirks.

"Oh my god Mindy, I said that once, and I was kinda drunk, and that was years ago...before any of that crazy shit happened."

"Yeah, those were the days..." She misses not having to constantly hide herself, but now, even when she's not Hit Girl, she has to hide her true appearance. There was a strange thrill from being wanted by the police, but that was for the first year. Now, it's just annoying.

Once the knives are sharpened, she positions the mannequin to the other side of the room. She aims for all the main arteries first; the first throw is slightly off target but the rest land where they should. She continues this for an hour or so, the perfectionist in her refuses to let it be any less, yet she stops once she gets tired of Dave's constant sighing. He's bored. Mindy can tell as he sits in a daze. She throws one of the knives and it lands on the wall beside his head. Dave jumps up in shock and falls clumsily to the floor. Mindy tries to hold back her laughter, but it makes her sound like she's choking, so she just lets it all out.

"What the hell Mindy?"

"I thought you needed a wake up call. Plus you were distracting me with your incessant sighing. Now get the fuck over here and train." She puts her knives down on the counter and goes back to the centre of the room.

"But Mindy I-"

"No 'buts' Dave, get over here now," she demands.

He groans, and mumbles, "Aw man," as he walks over.

"You have to admit, you need some fine tuning, now hit me."

He doesn't even hesitate and throws a punch at full force. Mindy dodges with ease and spins around so she's now behind him and goes to kick him behind his knees to knock him down. Surprisingly, he elbows her in the stomach to wind her, and hooks his foot around her ankle so she flies down to the floor. She lands on her back and laughs, "Wow, no more underestimating you." She stands back up, "Now I'm definitely not gonna go easy on you." They spar for a couple of hours. Mindy pinning Dave to the floor more times than she could count. He beats her several times, but he ends up with way more bruises and scrapes than her.

After, they both laid on the floor, Mindy to relax, and Dave to regain his breath. Finally, Dave's breathing goes back to normal, and he brings up Anne again, "So, how're you gonna train her then? - Anne I mean."

Mindy opens her eyes and turns to look at him, "I thought we agreed on a 'don't mention Anne' day?" And raises her eyebrows at him, "Hm?"

"I know but, are you gonna give her special treatment 'cause of her injury, or what?"

She sighs, "Probably put off hand to hand combat for a while. I don't want to make her injury worse."

"So...?"

Mindy stretches her body out on the floor and sits up, "We'll focus on target practice, that's what she'd need the most work on anyways."

Dave rolls over, so he's laying on his front, "How do you mean?"

She stands up, "Well, physically, she's perfect for hand to hand combat, but I doubt her aim is decent with a gun or a knife." She settles down into the splits, and leans forward, grabbing her foot with her hands so she's completely stretching out.

"That makes sense." He watches her stretching, and follows her lead, sitting up and reaching forward to touch his toes, "Man, I wish I was as bendy as you."

Mindy gives him a look of confusion, "Um, why?"

"Well, it'd be useful, like if I had to dodge something by doing the splits or whatever," He shakes his head at his own explanation, "What I mean is, it'd be useful in combat."

She leans backwards, so her head touches the back of her leg and stretches her arms out to reach her foot, "Hm, I suppose it is, though I tend to use it to kick a douche in the face."

"So," He pauses, then teasingly asks, "Are you gonna be able to restrain yourself with Anne?"

"God, Dave! I'm not an animal!" She turns her head to the side and glares at him.

"I know, but being a ballet dancer, she's as flexible as you, maybe even more actually."

She rolls her eyes at him and sits back up, "And what does that have to do with anything?"

"Well, isn't flexibility a turn on for you..?"

Her eyes widen in surprise, "How the fuck do you know that?"

"One word: drunk." He smirks.

She groans and covers her face with her hands to hide the slight redness on her cheeks, "I should've known that my drunk talk would be used against me one day"

"Hey, you used mine against me earlier! Bet you have been thinking about how flexible she is though." He laughs, "Right Mindy?"

She ignores him and pulls herself out of the splits to sit with her legs crossed. She sits there in silence, resting her chin on a hand, and staring at the floor in a daze.

"Hey, Mind, you okay?" He asks in concern.

She mumbles, "Yeah, yeah, just thinking..."

He leans forward, "About...?"

"Whether or not training Anne is a bad idea."

"I thought we sorted that out last night."

"Yeah I know, but," She pauses, "I can't ever date her, or even be friends, or anything."

Dave sighs, "Okay, Mindy, maybe you should just drop that rule for yourself."

Mindy stands up and storms to where her knives are, "Dave I thought you'd get it! I can't get involved with someone who isn't a part of this, this vigilante thing we've got going on. It's too risky!" She begins organising the knives to be put away, "I mean, if you knew Katie was gonna get hurt 'cause of you, you'd never have dated her, right?"

He whispers out a, "Yeah."

"Right, so, maybe I shouldn't take that risk. Anne she's, she's way too innocent, too nice to have to deal with the shit that happens from being associated with me."

She hadn't even heard Dave walk over to her, way too focused on the organisation of her knives, and it's his gentle touch on her shoulder that makes her turn around.

"Mindy, what happened with Katie," He sighs, "If I'd been more careful with keeping my identity secret, she would've been fine."

"But-"

"Okay, you be quiet and let me talk," Mindy clamps her mouth shut, "You've been different since you met her Mindy. I mean not in obvious ways, but when I saw you the morning after you got over your panic about training her, you had this bounce in your step, and a smile on your face when you thought I wasn't looking."

She blushes, she hadn't even realised that she'd been acting differently at all.

"I mean, I know it's only been a few days, but you genuinely like this girl, yeah?"

She nods, "Hmm-mm"

"Well then go for it, she makes you happy and she needs to learn self defence, so why the hell not? Just keep your identity a secret and you'll both be fine."

"Right, yeah, that sounds like a plan," The knives are all put away now, "But I'm still not gonna date her."

Dave laughs, "Whatever you say Mindy."


	7. Anne -Visitors

**_Quick Message: _**_Well this took me a lot longer to write than I thought it would. I don't know why this chapter was so difficult to write -maybe it's 'cause of the introduction of a whole bunch of OC's, or that there's barely any Hit Girl in it. I find chapters with Mindy or Dave tend to flow much better when I'm writing them. But it's finally done now! Yay! (Sorry for the long wait) The next chapter is definitely something I can't wait to write. Mindy/Anne interaction from Mindy's perspective! As always feel free to leave a review, even if it's just a short message, or correcting mistakes I've missed, I'll be thankful for them. _

* * *

The week brings a bout of visitors. Anne's parents arrive first thing in the morning after Hit Girl's visit, both cooing over her whilst her mother plays with her hair; she knows that calms Anne down in stressful situations. This tended to be used around the times of her dance exams in the past. Her father just holds her hand, rubbing it every now and then as though to make sure she is still there, still alive.

They discuss plans to bring over more clothes for her to wear, and toiletries. She could really do with a face wipe just about now. Her father tells her that they've been caring for her cat, Hypnos, her Russian Blue, and is doing the usual; sleeping. Anne can't believe she totally forgot about her cat, and thanks her parents for remembering about him. They tell her not to worry and that with everything that has happened, they would have been surprised if she did remember. Anne makes a mental note to buy some cat treats once she gets out of there as an apology to Hypnos for forgetting all about him.

They spend the morning discussing what they were up to before the incident. Anne with her rehearsals and her parents, who have been house hunting for the past month, to no avail. They tell her that they have been visiting for the past few days, fueled with worry despite reassurances from the doctor, just sitting by her bedside, holding her hands and telling her stories about her childhood.

It's her mother who brings up Hit Girl, "I wish we could thank the superhero personally, she must've left you a name, Anne."

"Nope, nothing," Trying to avoid eye contact by focusing on the book in her hands. She hates lying to her parents, but she knows that if she tells someone, Hit Girl may get in trouble, "I thanked her that night anyways."

"Good," her mother replies.

Their opinions on superheroes appears to have completely changed though. Anne recalls them once referring to the superheroes as deranged vigilantes who just did whatever they wanted to. But now, after everything, they're thankful for their existence, and fully support what they do.

"Honey, if you ever want to talk about what happened, how you are, you know you can talk to us, right?" Her Dad assures her. Anne feels her heart race as the memories of the attack come flooding back. Her grip tightens on the book as she wills herself to calm down.

"I'm not gonna pretend that I wasn't almost raped," Her voice chokes on the word, "that I almost died, Dad." She swallows the lump in her throat and takes a deep breath, "But for now, I'd rather not talk about it."

"Whenever you're ready then," Her mother softly says and strokes her hair.

Anne only nods in reply to put off continuing on the conversation. She thinks about ballet, then her mind goes to Hit Girl's visit, as she tries to avoid thinking about the attack.

Her parents leave to talk to the doctor about her progress. When they return they announce that they're going to leave to have lunch and promise to bring back a decent meal for her. Anne's mouth practically waters at the thought. The hospital food isn't bad per say but nothing compares to a home cooked meal.

Anne spends the time glancing between the windows and her book, wondering when Hit Girl will return, if she'll ever return. _Maybe she just said she'd think about it to be nice_, Anne sighs turning back to focus on her book.

Her parents return a couple of hours later with her food in tow. She scoffs down the meal, chicken casserole much to her delight, and has to force herself to slow down to relish the taste. Her parents grin in amusement and tell her they'll bring her dinner everyday if she'd like. Anne hums a yes and nods enthusiastically as she chews on a piece of chicken. Her parents leave soon after she's finished, explaining that it's getting late and they have to be up early for work in the morning.

* * *

The next day, her parents show up in the early morning to drop off some clothes and toiletries (finally some face wipes!) and leave soon after to head to work. Her ballet company shows up in the afternoon; they all pour in to the room until it's packed. They're faces are full of sympathy, they all knew how excited Anne was about her lead role, with her constant grinning during rehearsals, even when her feet and muscles ached with every movement, and the hours upon hours of staying behind to work on her solos. (Once she'd accidentally fell asleep in the studio from exhaustion and was woken up the following morning by the cleaners).

They discuss who will be taking over her role, Ruby, who coincidentally is not there. They all know of the slight rivalry between the two women so they break it to Anne very carefully, as though that could be worse than being stabbed. Anne only sighs and rolls her eyes. She wouldn't be surprised if Ruby practically fled to the studio when she heard about the news of Anne's hospitalization, in order to ensure her place for the lead role.

They start to leave only after being there for half an hour (at the doctor's request, as the room was way too overcrowded), except for her two close friends, Irene, whose sleek black hair has been pulled back in a pony tail today. Her dark eyes are focusing on Anne's face; trying to figure out how she's really feeling. Anne turns to look at Roxanne, who's currently running her hand through her naturally wavy brown hair, that Anne often finds herself envying over, as she glances out the window, waiting for everyone to leave. Anne's missed the sight of their lovely faces.

Once everyone has left they make their way over to her bedside and warmly smile as they hold her hands, well Irene does, Roxanne quickly begins telling a comical story of how her dog got stuck in his dog flap the other day and how he now has to go on a diet. She pulls the expression of the dog's face when she found him stuck, it's a mix of sorrow and embarrassment. Anne tries not to laugh, but it bursts out and the sudden retraction of her muscles makes her hiss in pain, "Fucking christ, that hurt".

"Do you want us to call the doctor?" Irene asks, sitting up abruptly.

"Nah, I'll be fine, just gotta take a few deep breaths," Anne explains, taking said deep breaths.

"Well, no more funny stories for you today then," Roxanne says, her dark blue eyes lighting up in amusement.

"You should have warned me!"

"Hey don't go blaming me, who was the one who decided to walk around alleyways at midnight?" Roxanne chastises as she takes her coat off, revealing more of her pretty dark olive skin.

"Shut up," Anne sticks her tongue out at her, "That's the quickest way to my house from the studio and you know it, plus it was freezing that night! Can you really blame me?"

Irene butts in, agreeing with her, "She does have a point Rox, all you did was complain about how cold it was when we walked back".

Anne nods, crosses her arms and says, "I rest my case".

Roxanne rolls her eyes, smiling, "Take your coat off Irene, we're gonna be here a while." Irene begins unbuttoning her navy coat. As she does so, she begins talking, "So," Irene draws out, "there's been a few rumours, something about a superhero rescuing you...?" The coat is now off.

"Yes, the rumours are true" She takes a few sips of the water that's by her bedside.

"So she really killed the guy?" Irene leans over, eyes wide in eagerness.

"Yes," she draws out, Anne will never understand Irene's thirst for violence, "I didn't see it though, just felt the blood splatter on my face." She places the cup back on the bedside table.

Roxanne makes gagging noises, whilst Irene's nose scrunches in distaste.

"Did you guys talk though?" Roxanne asks, once she finally stops fake gagging. Anne's not sure whether or not to bring up their short conversation. She doesn't want to accidentally let something slip, so she tries to keep her answer as short and truthful as possible, "Only a little, she slapped me to wake me up," Anne laughs at the memory. Roxanne snorts.

"Is that all then?" Irene asks, interest piqued.

"Yeah," Anne replies, wishing she could tell them more about Hit Girl; how she visited her when she didn't have to, _and_ got her flowers, and that she may even be teaching her how to fight. Instead Anne changes the conversation, "So, how are rehearsals coming along?"

"Meh, the usual, pretty boring without you though, we just spend most of the time glaring at Ruby," Roxanne replies.

"Ah yes, Ruby, Miss Stuck-Up-I-Must-Have-Everything," Anne mutters.

Roxanne snorts, and Irene giggles as she brings a hand up to cover her face.

"Hey Anne, you got a face wipe I can use? My face feels gross," Irene asks, pulling her hand away from her face in slight disgust.

"Yeah, they're in my makeup bag, right over there," she points to where her travel bag is.

"Thanks," Irene gets up and obtains a facial wipe, cleaning her light, freckled face as she walks back to her seat.

"Did you guys have rehearsals today?"

"Yeah, haven't had the chance to clean my face after, hence the grossness."

"Lovely," Anne grimaces.

"When are you coming back? We miss you already!" Roxanne leans over, resting her arms on Anne's bed, eagerly awaiting for an answer.

Anne smiles, "Few weeks, gotta give me some time to heal Rox." Roxanne practically deflates, her usual perkiness diminished at the new found information. Anne tries to reassure her, "Hey it's not too long, hopefully I'll be back in time for when we do 'Swan Lake', or 'Romeo and Juliet'."

"But that's not for months," Roxanne pouts.

"Well, I need time to heal, and then slowly get back to the standard I was before this whole," She pauses, "Incident, but I'll still be around, once they figure out what to do with me of course."

Roxanne nods in understanding, yet her slight frown remains. Irene speaks up, trying to break the awkward silence in the room, "They'll probably make you teach the beginner classes."

Anne groans, "Oh god, let's hope not."

"Well it'd make sense. That way you get to train on some level and it won't be too straining on your body," Irene points out, as she throws her face wipe in the bin.

Anne hums in agreement; it'll take her a while to warm up to the idea, but teaching was something she wasn't entirely comfortable doing. She had the patience somewhat, but she never enjoyed it when she had to fill in 'cause one of the teacher's called in sick. Anne's never been entirely sure why she didn't enjoy teaching ballet, maybe it's because it's so repetitive.

"We should probably be heading back," Irene breaks her out of her thoughts, "More rehearsals."

"Have fun!" Anne laughs, as Roxanne groans, "But my muscles have finally stopped aching!"

Irene rolls her eyes at Roxanne, and turns back to Anne, "We'll visit everyday, okay?"

"That'd be awesome."

They both carefully hug her, and just before they leave Anne remembers that she needs to leave the window open, "Oh, hey wait! Could one of you open the window a little? I like to have a slight cool breeze in here." Roxanne pulls a face at the request, but complies anyway. Then they're both gone. The room is silent once again and Anne tries to lose herself in a book rather than let her mind wander back to the attack.

* * *

Days pass by, with visits from her parents and Irene and Roxanne, and eventually she's able to move a bit more as the days progress. Currently, Anne's watching some late night TV, nightmares have been haunting her sleep each night, and she's trying to put off sleeping; just one night of peace and distraction is what she needs. Though thoughts of Hit Girl visiting have her glancing back and forth between the TV and window, wondering just when she'll turn up. She sighs at herself,_ I'm being ridiculous, of course it's gonna take a while, it's such a big request..._ She forces herself to focus on the TV, and_ e_ventually she drifts off to sleep, the TV left on for the rest of the night. She wakes briefly to a nurse turning the TV off, but quickly returns to unconsciousness.

* * *

It's now been a week since Hit Girl visited her. Anne is now allowed to slowly walk around her room for short periods of time a day; she tries to make these last as long as possible until the nurses are forcing her back into bed to rest. It's around 10pm and she's standing at the window debating whether or not to open it for another night. She almost decides not to, with the belief that Hit Girl has decided to not train her, but as she pulls her hand away from the handle she changes her mind and opens it. Carefully she walks back to her bed, to not irritate her wound, and slowly sinks into the mattress, wrapping her blankets tightly around herself to ward off the winter chill.

Soon she slinks into sleep, and she's back to that night. She's walking down the alley, her mind telling her to stop. Turn around and run, but her, _dream_ her, doesn't. She continues despite the warnings. As she leaves the alley, she feels herself being pulled back into the shadows. She can feel everything. The man's breathe on her neck that makes her shudder in disgust. The tight hold he has around her chest that makes it difficult to breathe. Time has slowed down in this version of events. The real one was much faster, more rushed, and she didn't have to feel everything. This time the man doesn't try to cover her screams, she doesn't get to bite his hand to escape. She doesn't get saved. When she thinks it's over, the man starts shaking her frantically, and that's when she wakes up to a shadow looming over her, shaking her awake with a firm grip on her arms.

Anne shrieks and fumbles with the shadow who tries to silence her with their hand. Her breathing is frantic, her chest tight. She can't breathe. Tears are dripping down her cheeks , but as the shadow tells her softly to calm down, she feels her chest loosen slightly as she recognises the voice. Hit Girl's whispering, "I'm sorry," over and over, as she removes her hand from Anne's mouth. The look of absolute remorse on Hit Girl's partially covered face is enough for Anne to know she's truly apologetic.


	8. Mindy -The Conversation

_**Quick Message:** Wow this took so long to write up! I'm so sorry guys, personal life kinda got in the way, mainly university stuff... But it's done, and I hope it lives up to your expectations. Do you ever think to yourself that as you're writing Mindy's speech that she's just not swearing enough? I get that a lot when I'm writing her talking to Anne, but I think it may have to do with Anne's influence over Mindy. I wanted to write more Dave/Mindy interaction but I'm really tired and I've put posting this chapter off long enough so...yeah. (also blame Shingeki No Kyojin for also distracting me -an anime/manga I've really got into the past few weeks and has also taken over my life.)_

* * *

Well fuck. She'd freaked Anne out, like really scared the shit out of her. Mindy hadn't meant to. The girl just wouldn't wake up; she tried whispering her name, lightly shoving her, yet she remained in a deep sleep. That's when Anne started whimpering as though she was in pain. _A nightmare_, Mindy surmised, and realised she'd have to wake her up soon, lest she attracted attention from the hospital staff. So she roughly shook her awake. She wasn't expecting Anne to be so terrified. But now Mindy realised what it must of looked like in the darkness. To Anne she was just a threatening shadow at that moment, and if someone had grabbed Mindy and tried to cover her mouth in her sleep, she'd have automatically attempted to kill the guy in defence. (She'd almost done that to Dave once, luckily she got a glance of his face before she went in for the kill, and quickly dropped the knife; she still keeps it under her pillow)

Anne had calmed down slightly the moment she heard Mindy's voice, yet her breathing was still erratic. She apologised over and over, worry and regret seeping through her body at the dishevelled state Anne was in.

So Mindy took initiative; rubbing Anne's arms gently she tells her, "Look at me, Anne," She automatically complies, pale blue eyes penetrating hers, "Now follow my breathing, this will help you calm down, okay?" Anne nods, and Mindy begins taking deep breathes, Anne quickly following her example. It doesn't take too long, and Anne is back to breathing normally.

"You came," are the first words she whispers to Mindy, "I didn't think you would, I left the window open every night for you," she pauses, "I almost gave up." Anne reaches over to her bedside to grab some tissue making Mindy remove her hands from her arms. Anne wipes the tears away from her eyes and cheeks as Mindy takes a seat beside her bed.

Mindy sits there in shock, she'd scared the girl and now she sounded almost happy and relieved, not even a tad bit angry, "Wait, you're not mad at me?"

Anne shrugs, "Not really, though you could've woke me up in a much less violent way," She jokes, trying to lighten the atmosphere.

"Sorry about that, but you wouldn't wake up!" Mindy explains.

"I've been known to be a deep sleeper, once my ex-boyfriend thought I had died!" She laughs airily, eyes full of amusement, "I woke up to him being on the verge of crying!" The laughter soon dies down as Anne then dreamily sighs, obviously reminiscing on the memory with some sort of longing and nostalgia.

Mindy snorts at the story, yet the pang of jealousy prevents her from laughing. The thought of her past relationship with this mysterious man makes her jaw clench slightly. She's not jealous of the man being intimate with Anne, but actually of the obvious love and care she once shared with him. Mindy knows she can't expect that , she shouldn't expect that, the most she can expect is some form of friendship with the girl.

So, she quenches down that sour green-eyed monster within her and focuses on Anne instead, who's fiddling with a piece of tissue in her pale hands. She has very slim wrists, delicate artist hands that Mindy is sure would make her skin light on fire at the slightest touch. She appears much more stronger in herself than she did the last time Mindy saw her, even with the slight bags under her eyes. Her eyes, they've hardened as the week has gone by, they were soft and welcoming the night Mindy met her, now that reality has finally set in, she's changed. 'Are you okay?' she wants to ask. Mindy's not even realised she's said anything until Anne suddenly fixes her gaze on her, eyes wide at what she has said.

"What?" Anne asks.

Mindy realises she's spoken her thoughts out loud but decides she may as well repeat her question, "Are you okay?"

Anne hesitates on her answer, her jaw clenches as she frowns, and turns towards the other side of the room, avoiding eye contact. Finally she utters, "No," She pauses, "No I am not...but, I'm trying to be." She groans into her hands, "It's just these damn nightmares won't leave me alone!"

"Does anyone else know, your family? Friends? Your doctor at least?"

Anne bites her small plump lips in hesitation, then shakes her head, "No, I don't want to worry everyone. "

Mindy sighs, keeping it all in won't do her any good, if anything it'll only make her feel worse, "Anne you need to tell someone, stuff like this can really mess you up, especially when you keep it in for so long. "

"I'm telling you aren't I?" Anne smirks, knowing for a fact that she's right.

Mindy rolls her eyes, "Well yeah, but-"

"Hit Girl, you understand, you were there, and oddly enough, though we barely know each other, I feel most comfortable talking about it with you. I trust you," Anne finally looks at her, and Mindy feels any words that she was going to say catch in her throat. She hasn't had someone tell her they trust her with complete honesty since Dave, and they'd known each other for years. Mindy can't decide if Anne is ridiculously naive, or somehow she has learnt of Mindy's undeniable loyalty and gained an understanding of her; if it's the latter then Mindy has seriously underestimated Anne. She licks her lips, notices how Anne glances at them briefly, and tries to think of a reply, _Just say something Mindy, anything, do what you came to do in the first place for fuck sake! _

"I know what'll cheer you up," She smirks, she can't wait to see Anne's reaction.

Anne's eyes narrow in interest, "What?"

"I've decided," Mindy pauses, for dramatic effect of course, "That I will train you."

Anne squeaks. Mindy jumps back slightly in shock. Then Anne frantically covers her mouth to muffle the litany of squeaks that escape her lips. _Oh my god she sounds like a kitten, fuck why does she have to be so cute...I wonder what other sounds she'd make? _Mindy groans silently into her gloved hands, pushing those thoughts aside. She hears movement and looks up; Anne is trying to get out of bed, she's grinning wildly, long hair flailing about, "Oh my god! Ouch!" She curls into herself, "Sorry, moved too fast!"

Mindy snorts, "Fuck if I'd know that'd cheer you up, I'd have said the moment I had you awake."

Anne pauses, she's sitting up with a contemplative look on her face. She turns to Mindy and demands, "Come here."

"Um, what?" Mindy leans back into her chair even further.

Anne rolls her eyes, "Come here, I want to hug you!" She stretches her arms out, awaiting for said hug.

Mindy sits up until she's on the edge of her chair, eying Anne's arms warily, "I'm not so sur-"

"Oh just get over here for goodness sake!" She gestures.

"Jeez calm the fuck down," She moves over to Anne and engulfs her into her arms. She's soft and warm, and she feels Anne relax into her as she sighs. Mindy tries to not breathe in, she knows the moment she breathes in Anne's scent she'll be lost, but Anne doesn't seem to be letting go anytime soon and Mindy can feel her chest tightening for air. So she breathes. It's flowers, and so definitely feminine, so Anne, and Mindy just wants to breathe her in for hours. Maybe nuzzle in closer, no she can't do that. Anne would definitely be more than creeped out if she pushed the boundaries too far.

"Yay," Anne whispers into her ear. Mindy's breath hitches at the sensation, and pulls back before she does something she regrets. Anne looks slightly dejected at the removal, yet her grin remains.

"I can't believe you're going to train me," She pauses, pushing her hair out of her face, "How are we going to work time and dates out?"

Mindy gazes over Anne's long locks, and replies, "I could text you or something, just don't have me down as 'Hit Girl' in your contacts."

Anne snorts and rolls her eyes, "Obviously...can you pass me my pen and notebook?"

Mindy glances around the room, "They're next to the yellow tulips," Anne points at them.

"Oh, right," Mindy walks over and retrieves the items, handing them over to Anne as she walks back to her seat. Anne quickly scribbles into it, then tears out a page, handing the paper to Mindy.

"It's my number," Anne states, placing her notebook and pen onto her bedside table.

"Thanks," Mindy folds the sheet and places it into one of her belt compartments. Anne is fiddling with her hair, untangling it with her fingers rather than with a brush, and seems to be growing more and more aggravated with it.

"Don't you have a brush or something?"

Anne glances up, and shyly shrugs, "Yeah, but it's in my travel bag and I didn't want to inconvenience you again." Mindy gets up and walks over to the bag, rummaging through various clothes, mostly pajamas and pretty underwear, and finds the hairbrush. Its handle is covered in various hair ties, Mindy smiles, she'd expected Anne to keep them in a nice little box somewhere, not messily tied onto her hairbrush for convenience.

"Here," She hands it to her.

"Thanks," Anne smiles and ruthlessly begins brushing the knots out of her hair, "I really need to get a hair cut, damn split ends," She mumbles to herself.

Mindy lightly laughs as she sits back down. She watches as Anne pulls a hair tie off the brush, sits up, and then begins to attempt to french plait her own hair. She doesn't last long, the slight wrong movement makes her curl into herself and whimper in pain. The incomplete braid falls out as soon as she lets go.

"Do you need any help?" Mindy asks, slightly worried.

Anne quickly replies, "Nope, I'm good. I should be able to do this. I managed it yesterday."

She's concentrating on the plait, eyebrows furrowing, lips pursing, and Mindy is trying not to smile at how determined she is. It happens again, and Anne growls in annoyance, rather than in pain.

Mindy sighs, "Okay, I'm doing it for you," and removes her gloves as she stands up.

Anne pulls herself out of reach, hands clasping the brush, "No, you really don't need to."

Mindy grabs the brush from her tight grip, "You're just going to hurt yourself more," and gestures for Anne to position herself.

"I hate this." Anne whispers as she moves, "I hate needing help all the time."

"Sometimes we all need help," Mindy mumbles as she brushes Anne's hair. She touches the strands gently, it's soft and fine and Mindy wonders what noise she'd make if she tugged those locks lightly. She shakes her head as though she could physically shake off those thoughts and gets back to work.

Suddenly Anne turns to look at her, eyes wide in bewilderment, "You've needed help?"

Mindy grabs her face and turns her back around, ignoring Anne mutter, "Bossy," and continues brushing her hair. She replies, "I may be a superhero Anne, but I'm human too." She sighs, "I'm not invincible."

"Right." Anne breathes. After a while of brushing she notes how Anne's shoulders have dropped in relaxation. Mindy puts the brush down and begins to section her hair. She hears a quiet moan of pleasure as she lightly tugs the sections, making sure they're secure in her hand. It startles Mindy; she stops what she's doing and tries to fend off the rush of heat on her cheeks. _Oh shit, so she'd make a noise like that..._ She hears Anne mumble an apology, muffled by her hands that she's obviously covered her face with in embarrassment. Mindy chuckles, trying to ease the tension in the air and Anne soon laughs with her.

"Are you _sure_ you can handle this Anne? Maybe we should take a break," Mindy jokes suggestively.

Anne giggles and replies, "No, no, I'm sure I'll be fine."

"Alright, if you're sure," She continues sectioning and plaiting. It doesn't take long and the braid is complete. Mindy holds her hand out for the hair tie, and Anne quickly places it on her palm.

"It is done," Mindy announces dramatically. Anne starts touching the braid, making sure it reaches her standard Mindy assumes.

Anne nods in approval, "Hmm, it feels fine, thank you," and smiles at Mindy.

"Glad it reaches your standards," Mindy replies.

Anne snorts and continues stroking the braid. Mindy grabs the gloves she'd placed on the bed. She goes to put them back on when she hears Anne say, "Woah, you have really small hands."

"Excuse me?" She frowns at her, her hands aren't _that_ small.

"That wasn't an insult!" Anne instantly replies, "I just thought...it was quite cute is all." She looks down at her hands which are fiddling with the blanket.

"I'm not cute," She growls, roughly shoving her hands into her gloves.

"Okay, if you say so," Anne's lips are pursing, her shoulders shifting up and down slightly as though she's trying to suppress her laughter.

"I'm not. I can kill a man with his own finger," She proudly declares.

Anne nods in agreement, "Right." Amusement still flickers in her eyes.

"I'm not!" Mindy crosses her arms over her chest.

"I know."

She storms over to the window, "I'm leaving now."

"Okay, have a safe journey!" Anne waves.

"Stop that!" Mindy can feel herself blushing now.

She lets her hand fall, "Sorry." Her voice is laced with hurt.

Mindy sighs, she's being mean to Anne and she doesn't deserve it. She turns back to look at her and whispers, "I'll text you in a few weeks."

"Okay," She smiles softly.

Mindy jumps out the window, "See you around Red," and hears a gentle giggle as she closes the window and leaves.

* * *

Mindy arrives back home to Dave casually drinking coffee and watching 'Game of Thrones' on Netflix. It's obvious he's waited up for her, wanting to hear first hand how her visit with Anne has gone. He abruptly turns to her the moment she walks in the living room, mouth full of coffee and eyebrows raising, _So how did it go?_ She rolls her eyes at his eagerness, and just replies with a smile.

Dave gulps down the coffee and laughs, "That well, huh?"

She rubs the back of her neck in embarrassment. It's ironic, she can talk about her numerous sexual conquests and it doesn't phase her one bit, but mention adorable moments with Anne and she's reduced to a bashful mess.

"Yup, pretty well, I kinda scared the crap outta her at first..." She mumbles.

Dave grimaces, "How the hell did you manage that?"

"She wouldn't wake up...so..." She throws herself down on the sofa, "I really roughly shook her awake_...and_ I freaked her out."

Dave breathes out a, "Damn", and takes another sip of his drink.

"It got way fucking better from there though," Mindy grins.

Dave smirks, "Oh really, care to tell?"

"In a sec, but first, why are you watching 'Game of Thrones' without me?" She crosses her arms and raises an eyebrow at him, "Hm?"

"It's not a new episode I swear!"

"I'm just fucking with ya Dave, I knew what episode it was the moment I walked in."

"Mean," He grumbles at her, then perks up, "_So _details then?

She tells Dave everything. Even how she blushed; Dave smiles at that. There are no secrets between them. Dave also tells her everything when there's something to tell, like how he sometimes goes to Atomic Comics just to feel some sort of normalcy, a way of rekindling the past. He admits that it's risky but he goes in disguise just in case, and with the dramatic change to his body; going from slender to a hulk of muscle, no one's eyes gleam at him in recognition. He even tells her the small things, what he ate one day, how long he worked out for, what tv shows he started watching and wants to make her watch... They're family, friends, and partners. They need this complete honesty and understanding with each other. When they're out on patrol they barely need to speak, looks, and gestures are enough. Dave once joked about how they'd be perfect Jaeger pilots, Mindy snorted, called him a, "Nerd", and agreed. It's like their minds are linked when they fight together, and Mindy wouldn't have it any other way.

"So, that's all what happened," Mindy finishes.

"Sounds to me like you're in with a chance," Dave gulps down the remainder of his coffee.

Mindy shrugs, doubt clouding her mind, "You don't know that Dave. She might just be friendly, she probably jokingly flirts with her friends."

"Maybe, but you never know," He counters.

"True," Mindy bites her lip in contemplation. She rubs her sore eyes and feels a yawn coming on. They both yawn, then laugh at the simultaneous action.

"Okay, definitely time for bed, lucky I'm working in the evening tomorrow."

"Still at 'Abercrombie and Fitch'?"

Dave groans, "Yeah, it's not so bad, it's just I keep on getting interrupted when I'm rearranging stuff, and getting chatted up," He gets up and takes his coffee mug to the kitchen.

"Wow, sucks to be you," Mindy calls after him.

Dave walks back in the room, "It's annoying. I'm there to work, you know, my job isn't to just stand around, look pretty, and flirt."

"Why don't you quit then?"

He shrugs, "The pays pretty good."

Mindy rolls her eyes, and heads upstairs, bidding Dave goodnight as she does so. She removes her clothes as soon as she enters her bedroom, and throws herself into bed. She's too tired to put on some pajamas. Sleep soon takes over and Mindy dreams of an all too familiar floral fragrance and light laughter.


End file.
